Neon Dance is an internationally renowned dance company that embraces a diverse and digital population. It is also a place where artists, partners and people can engage in experiences that are experimental and original, whilst also acceptable. Collaborating with filmmakers, composers, photographers, scenographers, fashion artists and more, Neon Dance aims to create an altruistic environment where risk-taking and collaboration are allowed to flourish in order to develop works that explore technologies and design with the body as the central tenet.

WildKat is working with Neon Dance on two of their current UK Tours: ‘Puzzle Creature’ and ‘Mahajanaka Dance Drama’

‘Puzzle Creature’ is a new multidisciplinary dance work inspired by the death-eluding architecture designs of Arakawa and Madeline Gins. Three exquisite dance artists – Maren Fidje Bjørneseth, Moo Kim, and Aoi Nakamura – drive this 60-minute performance choreographed by Adrienne Hart. ‘Organisms that person’ are invited to step inside an inflatable set design by Numen / For Use. Black box theatres, foyers, museums and clubs are transformed into a unique immersive space shared by the audience and performers in a coexisting state. Puzzle Creature is also accompanied by a newly commissioned score for 8 speakers by Oxford-based composers Sebastian Reynolds.

‘Mahajanaka Dance Drama’ is a new multi-disciplinary music and dance piece conceived and produced in a collaboration between Sebastian Reynolds and trailblazing contemporary dance company Neon Dance. They have partnered to create a new stage work that fuses Thai traditional forms with western contemporary dance and music, telling the story of Mahajanaka, one of the oldest folk tales in the world. The story of Mahajanaka Jataka is part of a Buddhist tradition of Jataka; stories that depict the previous lives of the Buddha. In this tale, Prince Mahajanaka swims through the ocean for seven days and seven nights until he is saved by the Goddess Manimekhala. A greater symbolic image within this myth is Prince Mahajanaka’s renunciation of the throne when he becomes king, in order to live a holy life, to the despair of his queen, symbolising the dichotomy between spiritual fulfilment and marital expectation, resulting in a compelling yet tragic tale.